We need your help getting the word out on the Gray-Haired Witnesses Fast for Justice in Washington, DC on 6/21. Please broadly repost, download and distribute the flyers everywhere the people are at so that we can make this gathering as large and vibrant as it needs to be to really make a strong impact: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32238758/New-Flyer

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT EVERYONE CAN DO, NO ACTION IS TOO SMALL!

You can do this by some or all of the following:- Post our press release to your FB and other social networking sites, forward it to your email colleagues and forward it to local and national print, radio and tv media. Press release: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31674423/grayhairpr- Write a blog, article or commentary on our mission and call, post it and pass it on for posting on our website.- Write and publish an article on the case of the Scott Sisters and the issue of Black incarceration. (Case Summary on the Scott Sisters is at http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/search/label/Case%20Summary)- Volunteer to help us prepare for the day, particularly if you live in the DC, Balt., VA area, we need you however you are able!- Please donate some time to this effort with your cultural, conscious entertainment performance!

CONTACT US TODAY AND GET INVOLVED!

Contact us at ghwitnesses@gmail.com, 1- 866-968-1188, Ext. 2, and please link to/follow us at http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com/ and support!

The Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice will undertake a fast and appear at the Department of Justice and the White House in Washington, DC on June 21, 2010, calling upon the nation to exercise an authentic system of justice in the case of Gladys and Jamie Scott and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children. Among their demands is freedom for the Scott Sisters and that an Inspection and Observation Team enter the Pearl, MS prison where Jamie Scott is being held. The day-long event commences at the Department of Justice in a 10:00 a.m formal appeal to Eric Holder, rejoins at the White House at Noon in a press conference and formal appeal to President Obama, and then continues at Lafayette Square Park from 1PM until 9PM for the duration of the fast with speakers, live performances and artists. All attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items in honor of the fasting elders to be distributed to the Washington, DC community at the conclusion of the day. The Witnesses will wear white on that day and we are asking as many people to join us and as many as can to wear white in solidarity there and internationally.

We need our community to support us in this effort to bring national attention to the case of the Scott Sisters and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children.

We need volunteers, particularly those in the tri-state DC, MD, VA area, to contact us!! We need assistance distributing information and in carrying out the event on that day, please get involved! -------

IN SOLIDARITY:

Free The Scott Sisters!

It grieves me Bros, Sis and Comrades, in this day and age, that we even have to come together and mount a campaign to call for the Freedom of the Scott Sisters.

If ever there was a self-evident case, where there was NOTHING even to talk about, and that cried out for JUSTICE - this is it! We have two sisters, Jamie who's very seriously ill, and Gladys, both imprisoned in Mississippi, sentenced to double-life for a $11 robbery in which no one was injured and they've already done 15 years!!!.... not even considering they've staunchly proclaimed their innocence and are crying out for help!

It could be your sister, my sister, anybody's sister! So i gladly join the June 21st fast in solidarity with the Gray-Haired Witnesses White House demonstration demanding freedom for Scott Sisters. It's the very least i or anyone of us could do and i'm urging my family and friends to attend and fast also. If that doesn't get immediate result i hope you'll consider coming back with a campaign to boycott of the state of Mississippi, or some similar action, till they do free the Scott Sisters.

Stay strong, and keep fighting, i will too. Free the Scott Sisters!

Sundiata Acoli, Political Prisoner----------

Harambee Radio and TV Network is honored to stand in solidarity with the quest for justice for Jamie and Gladys Scott, two sisters who have been imprisoned for over 16 years. We deem it unconscionable that the Scott sisters received two life sentences for a crime that netted a mere eleven dollars; a crime for which they have always proclaimed their innocence.

The Harambee Radio and TV Network is pleased to be able to spotlight this egregious case, a case which continues to shock the conscience of those who hear it. Harambee features commentary and interviews from the most respected activists from across the nation and we seek to actively broaden awareness around the sisters’ case. As part of our solidarity, we are opening our airways with a special focus on this travesty of justice through both our online radio and television outlets. And, in concert with our mission statement, we will collaborate and partner with others to strengthen the movement that will allow justice to prevail.

Please send us your organization's statement of solidarity and send a representative to the event!------

Endorsement list is in formation, please send in your name and affiliation (if any) no later than June 15 to ghwitnesses@gmail.com. Updated endorsement lists will be posted in updated mailings, at the website and at the Facebook group.

We need you to support by doing some or all of the following:- STAND WITH US IN WASHINGTON AND BRING OTHERS!- Post our statement to your Facebook and other social netwoking sites. Help us get the word out.- Forward the press release to your email colleagues. (Press release is at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/31674423/grayhairpr)- Issue a statement of support on an individual or organizational level on this endeavor. Or, ask us to list you as an endorser.- Write a blog, article or commentary on the statement's mission and call, post it and pass it on for posting on our website.- Write and publish an article on the state of the Scott Sisters and the issue of Black incarceration. (Case Summary on the Scott Sisters is at http://freethescottsisters.blogspot.com/search/label/Case%20Summary)- Volunteer to help us prepare for the day, particularly if you live in the DC, Balt., VA area

Check us out on Tuesday June 1 at 11 pm on Garvey's Voice hosted by President General UNIA-ACL, Senghor Jawara Bayeand on Thursday June 3 at 7 pm on The Legacy Justice Radio Show hosted by Nkechi Taifa, Esq, both on the Harambee Radio and Television Network.

"We stand on this history today. We stand before you as Gray-Haired Witnesses asking freedom-loving people of all colors who believe in the dream of Ida B. Wells, of a just, safe and open America for all peoples regardless of our different social locations to break the veil of silence and stand strong in a renewed spirit of moral consciousness for this country. The greatest asset we have is our body, mind and spirit and our willingness to step out of the daily flow of life and stand tall for what is right and just. The jagged tears in the social and cultural infrastructure of Black and poor communities and families are unconscionable and unacceptable to us. We come ready to repair them. In the tradition of race women throughout history and our survival, we declare our presence and we will not be silent and we are not afraid." From the Call.

WASHINGTON, May 20 /Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice News -- The Gray-Haired Witnesses for Justice will undertake a fast and appear at the Department of Justice and the White House in Washington, DC on June 21, 2010, calling upon the nation to exercise an authentic system of justice in the case of Gladys and Jamie Scott and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children. Among their demands is freedom for the Scott Sisters and that an Inspection and Observation Team enter the Pearl, MS prison where Jamie Scott is being held.

This event was prompted by the serious illness of Jamie Scott and abysmal lack of competent medical care she has received in prison since both of her kidneys shut down this past January. Jamie has suffered so much maltreatment that she has quickly declined to stage 5 (end stage) kidney disease and has now effectively been sentenced to death. The Gray-Haired Witnesses are calling on all people of good will to fast in solidarity with them and to contact the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility and Dept. of Justice across the nation on that day.

The group issued the following statement about the fast in protest of continuing inhumane treatment and injustice in Americas courts and prisons:

"Over the last 20 years, the women’s population in US prisons has more than tripled. Most women are in prison as a result of drug selling, addiction, domestic violence and criminal acts mostly related to men. We also recognize the systemic racism that leads the police to even arrest the Black woman in the first place, the racism during sentencing, during incarceration, in dealing with social services, education, health discrimination, and beyond. We want to raise the political consciousness of the nation while standing as the moral soul of the nation. Many of us lived through segregation and worked to dismantle it through various movements for human dignity, equal rights and justice. We now see a coalition of corporate, cultural and political wars fully embracing a White supremacist culture of domination and terrorism. As part of this campaign they slander and dehumanize the entire Black community in the media and other public spaces.

This is perfectly illustrated by the case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys, whose almost 16 yrs of unjust incarceration is a shocking revelation of the pure nothingness with which our lives are deemed in the eyes of this society and world. In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit. They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters and their unbelievable convictions rest entirely on a combination of contradictory, coerced, and potentially perjured testimony by the victims and two other people charged with the crime who were offered lighter sentences for their cooperation. Even if the Scott Sisters were guilty of this crime, the sentence is absolutely unheard of and draconian, at best, and is cruel and unusual punishment without a doubt!

We come from a long line of women who refused to bend under the lash of chattel slavery from the time we were first dragged upon these shores until the 21st century slavery of today's prison industrial complex! We are the elder women, the daughters of the American slave system, Jim Crow oppression and the American Freedom Movement. We who are three strikes removed from the center of the power structure of this country. Our lives have prepared us to come to this place, at this time.”

The day-long event commences at the Department of Justice in a 10:00 a.m formal appeal to Eric Holder, rejoins at the White House at Noon for a press conference and formal appeal to President Obama, and then continues at Lafayette Square Park from 1PM until 9PM for the duration of the fast with speakers, live performances and artists. All attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items in honor of the fasting elders to be distributed to the Washington, DC community at the conclusion of the day. The Witnesses will wear white on that day and we are asking as many people as can to wear white in solidarity.

# # #

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Greetings,

I am Rev. Majadi Baruti, Chief Priest of Udja Temple Ministries. Udja Temple Ministries is dedicated to the acknowledgement of the divinity, sacredness and power of the Black Woman. We are advocates of the Black Woman's power, her grace and her great strength. In light of this we of Udja Temple join our hands with our sisters, The Gray Haired Witnesses For Justice. We understand further that those sisters have traditionally been strong defenders of our people and protectors of the rights of Black Women and Children. In this we stand in complete solidarity. Let it be known that Udja Temple does not tolerate injustice anywhere but especially as it pertains to the Black Family. Understanding the connectedness of the whole, and in solidarity with the Gray Haired Witnesses For Justice, I Rev. Majadi Baruti and Udja Temple Ministries call for these truths to be made manifest.

The immediate release of Jamie and Gladys Scott from the Mississippi Correctional Facilities which have unjustly kept them incarcerated without viable and probable cause for so many years.

The immediate end to the harassment, abuse and murder of innocent civilians by the Detroit Police Department which we fully recognize in the face of our spiritual daughter, Aiyanna Jones, 7 yrs old, murdered by the Detroit Police Department while asleep in her bed.

Lastly and most expressly we call for an end to the mistreatment, exploitation and indeed here today call for a State of Emergency for the Afrikan Woman and her Family, to be declared within the Afrikan Communities here and worldwide. Indeed SHE being the foundation of all things and the loving center of the Afrikan Family it is crucial that she is made whole. This state of emergency is not expected to be called into existence by the U.S. Government which has shown a historical lack of concern for the Afrikan Populations. We are calling this ourselves and are set and bound to change HER conditions.

Our solidarity with the Gray Haired Witnesses for Justice is tied and duty bound to cultural, historical, genetic and familial constructs of Afrikan lineage. We stand with our Sisters and our Mothers, our Aunts, our Grandmothers, our Cousins, Nieces, Friends, Lovers, Mates, Wives and Creators. We stand in full solidarity, absolute unity and with an unchanging faith that through the glory of the Afrikan Woman all things can be transformed. In this day, in this hour and at this most precise moment, that great task has begun.....Yemaya, Oshun, Sekhmet, Auset be praised, Ancestors Strengthen us and Gray Haired Witnesses for Justice guide us!!!

Friday, May 14, 2010

The Gray-Haired Witnesses are conducting a Fast for Justice at the Department of Justice Headquarters in Washington, DC on June 21, 2010.

We, who are three strikes removed from the center of the power structure of this country, want to raise the political consciousness of the nation while standing as the moral soul of the nation. We are Gray-Haired Witnesses who have struggled from time immemorial within the Black community. We are building towards a movement in history and we need all people of good will to be a part!

When Ida B. Wells stood up, she set in motion a resistance movement where many Americans broke their silence against lynching and said NO. She stood for a race of people bereft of political power or resources. More than 100 years later Gray-Haired Witnesses, Black women with a new Freedom Movement calling on this nation, stand in the spirit of those proud men and women who won hard-fought for victories in struggle and blood. We speak to the totality of the struggle of the Black woman who is debased regularly as uneducated, immoral, subhuman, whore, bad mother, and welfare queen. We also recognize the systemic racism that leads the police to even arrest the Black woman in the first place, the racism during sentencing, during incarceration, in dealing with social services, education, health discrimination, and beyond.

Over the last 20 years, the women’s population in US prisons has more than tripled. Most women are in prison as a result of drug selling, addiction, domestic violence and criminal acts mostly related to men. Too many are victimized by biased and negligent lawyers and judges. The evidence of oppression against Black and poor women significantly increased and continues to mount. Our Sisters are victimized, and subsequently our families, by enormous health care disparities, and emotional degradation through corporate media demonization of our image and place in our community. We now see a coalition of corporate, cultural and political wars fully embracing a White supremacist culture of domination and terrorism.

Our primary focus is the case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys, whose almost 16 yrs of unjust incarceration is a shocking revelation of the pure nothingness with which our lives are deemed in the eyes of this society and world, where such egregious travesties of justice are heaped upon our women with hate-filled arrogance and in plain view! In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit. They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered.

In January, 2010, Jamie Scott suffered failure of both kidneys. The combination of absymal health care under deplorable conditions has culminated in her steep decline to stage 5 (end stage) kidney disease. Jamie Scott has now effectively been sentenced to death. We must address this specific issue with urgency and demand that an Inspection and Observation Team be allowed into the Pearl, MS prison where Jamie Scott is being held for independent evaluation, as well as call on this government to free Jamie and Gladys Scott, wrongfully convicted and with no business being incarcerated in the first place! The case of the Scott Sisters is a horrific representation of the cases of countless other Black and poor women who have been denied the benefits of true justice and been incarcerated wrongly and in the process punishing, injuring and destroying Black families and children across the nation.

The Gray-Haired Witness are calling on all people of good will to fast and strike and resist with us across the nation on this day. The greatest asset we have is our body, mind and spirit and our willingness to step out of the daily flow of life and stand tall for what is right and just. In the tradition of race women throughout history and our survival, we declare our presence and we will not be silent and we are not afraid. Our lives have prepared us to come to this place, at this time.

STAND WITH US IN WASHINGTON, DC AND HELP TO BUILD THIS EVENT.

WE ASK THAT YOU STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH US:

1. Organize attendees to come to the event on June 21.2. Sign your organization/club/church/mosque/temple, etc. on in solidarity with the event.3. Put a statement in support on your website and link to our blogspot. Send a mailing to your email list and memberships.4. Assist in distributing literature for this event to build it to the maximum level. 5. Assist in garnering press now and at the event.6. Fast in solidarity on that day and make calls to the prison, DOJ and your own local press to let them know you're fasting in solidarity with this event going on in DC on 6/21 and maybe be able to help get radio or other interviews with the organizers. 7. Dress and wear buttons in solidarity with us on that day.

We call on our Sisters, our Brothers to join with us to demand what is right. We must speak loudly and clearly to the devaluation of Black women's bodies and lives. We want people of all colors to wage a struggle and stand with us on these issues because none of us are free until we are all free.

http://www.grayhairedwitnesses.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 13, 2010

We Stand in wisdom and with courage as the moral consciousness of a Nation

The Call

In 1896, Ida B. Wells, the African American crusader for justice and defender of democracy, said these words, “One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.” Her proclamation was a rallying cry for the nation to stand up against lynching and the right of Black men and women to live and move freely with white vigilante groups desecrating and torturing our bodies. When Ida B. Wells stood up, she set in motion a resistance movement where many Americans broke their silence against lynching and said NO. She stood for a race of people bereft of political power or resources. More than 100 years later Gray-Haired Witnesses, Black women with a new Freedom Movement calling on this nation, stand in the spirit of those proud men and women who won hard-fought for victories in struggle and blood. Thousands of ordinary Black people joined with thousands of people of all races to stand with courage to fight for the rights and liberties that are inherent in the Constitution. On the other hand, other people worked relentlessly to move the nation backwards by building an America where only one race and their freedom and bodies mattered. Truth be told, people of color have always lived under the weight of a lockdown society that use laws, torture, and incarceration to attempt to hold us in our places. Like Ida Wells Barnett, we did not back down despite economic, political and social reprisals.

We stand on this history today. We stand before you as Gray-Haired Witnesses asking freedom-loving people of all colors who believe in the dream of Ida B. Wells, of a just, safe and open America for all peoples regardless of our different social locations to break the veil of silence and stand strong in a renewed spirit of moral consciousness for this country. The greatest asset we have is our body, mind and spirit and our willingness to step out of the daily flow of life and stand tall for what is right and just. The jagged tears in the social and cultural infrastructure of Black and poor communities and families are unconscionable and unacceptable to us. We come ready to repair them. In the tradition of race women throughout history and our survival, we declare our presence and we will not be silent and we are not afraid.

Who We Are

We come from a long line of women who refused to bend under the lash of chattel slavery from the time we were first dragged upon these shores until the 21st century slavery of today's prison industrial complex! We witnessed a people living under severe oppression, and with limited resources create the capacity to win without ever discharging the first shot. We were present and part of the crossover from Jim Crow laws into a better place and with some protection. Out of that experience, and of that wisdom, we cannot remain silent and insist on pressing forward for ourselves and our people. Our history and the whispers of ancestral pleadings will not allow us to not meet our obligations to raise up our voices calling for justice and restoration of our people. We are the elder women, the daughters of the American slave system, Jim Crow oppression and the American Freedom Movement. We are gray-haired witnesses who have struggled from time immemorial within the Black community. We who are three strikes removed from the center of the power structure of this country. Our lives have prepared us to come to this place, at this time.

The Mission

Over the last 20 years, the women’s population in US prisons has more than tripled. They are our Sisters. Too many are victimized by biased and negligent lawyers and judges. The evidence of oppression against Black and poor women significantly increased and continues to mount. Our Sisters are victimized, and subsequently our families, by enormous health care disparities, and emotional degradation through corporate media demonization of our image and place in our community.

We speak to the totality of the struggle of the Black woman who is debased regularly as uneducated, immoral, subhuman, whore, bad mother, and welfare queen. Since 80% of women in prison are Black women, all forms of media promote the idea that Black women are worse than other women. Most women are in prison as a result of drug selling, addiction, domestic violence and criminal acts mostly related to men. We also recognize the systemic racism that leads the police to even arrest the Black woman in the first place, the racism during sentencing, during incarceration, in dealing with social services, education, health discrimination, and beyond.

We want to raise the political consciousness of the nation while standing as the moral soul of the nation. We assume this posture because we are ‘bridgers’ and remnants. Many of us lived through segregation and worked to dismantle it through various movements for human dignity, equal rights and justice. We now see a coalition of corporate, cultural and political wars fully embracing a White supremacist culture of domination and terrorism. They use their power and resources to lock down-out and up people of color, especially Black people. They seek to weaken our defenses and power to resist by attacking the strongholds that carried us through enslavement, segregation, and Northern oppression. As part of this campaign they slander and dehumanize the entire Black community in the media and other public spaces.

This is perfectly illustrated by the case of the Mississippi Scott Sisters, Jamie and Gladys, whose almost 16 yrs of unjust incarceration is a shocking revelation of the pure nothingness with which our lives are deemed in the eyes of this society and world, where such egregious travesties of justice are heaped upon our women with hate-filled arrogance and in plain view!

In 1994, the State of Mississippi sentenced Jamie and Gladys Scott to consecutive double-life terms each for two counts of armed robbery they did not commit. They did not have prior criminal records, vigorously maintained their innocence, approximately $11 was said to have been netted, no one was harmed or injured and no weapon was ever recovered. Witnesses testified that they were coerced and threatened to lie on the Scott Sisters and their unbelievable convictions rest entirely on a combination of contradictory, coerced, and potentially perjured testimony by the victims and two other people charged with the crime who were offered lighter sentences for their cooperation. Even if the Scott Sisters were guilty of this crime, the sentence is absolutely unheard of and draconian, at best, and is cruel and unusual punishment without a doubt!

We call on our Sisters, our Brothers to join with us to demand what is right, to require that our government and people of goodwill climb aboard our open train to democracy. We must speak loudly and clearly to the devaluation of Black women's bodies and lives. We want people of all colors to wage a struggle and stand with us on these issues because none of us are free until we are all free. .

The Declaration

We declare that we will act, do what we must, what is required to protect our community, our families and our children from systemic harm which results in their destruction. We will not be pressed down. We will witness from our rich history, in wisdom and with courage.

Immediate and Urgent Plan of Action

Sadly, there is truly a sense of urgency as in January, 2010, both of Jamie Scott's kidneys shut down and during her nightmarish roller-coaster ride of attempting to get competent and effective medical care has suffered so much maltreatment that she has quickly declined to stage 5 (end stage) kidney disease. Jamie Scott has now effectively been sentenced to death. We must address this specific issue with urgency. It is now a matter of life or death for Jamie Scott. We cannot allow her to further endure inadequate and incompetent medical care which assures her death.